Dante's Divine Comedy
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Dante's Divine Comedy
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Narrated by:
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Ronald B. Herzman
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William R. Cook
About this listen
Professors Cook and Herzman provide you with an illuminating introduction to one of the greatest works ever written. One of the most profound and satisfying of all poems, The Divine Comedy (or Commedia) of Dante Alighieri is a book for life. In a brilliantly constructed narrative of his imaginary guided pilgrimage through the three realms of the Christian afterlife, Dante accomplished a literary task of astonishing complexity.
But the full achievement of the Commedia goes beyond anything merely literary. In these twenty-four lectures, as you follow Dante on his journey, you'll learn how medieval literature offers insights into fundamental questions: What is the quality of our moral actions? How does spiritual transformation come about? What is the nature of good and evil, virtue and vice, sin and sanctity? Why is the world so full of strife? How do we go on when we lose the things we love? You'll discover why, in the centuries since the Commedia was written, not one of these questions has lost its force. Moreover, you'll hear Dante address them in a demanding and innovative Italian verse form (terza rima) that makes the Commedia one of the great virtuoso pieces of world literature.
With the guidance of these two master professors, you'll learn invaluable background information on Dante's life and times; why Dante wrote the Commedia; how to approach the various English editions available; and how each part of the poem is connected to what has come before. But above all, you'll understand why the Commedia is not a puzzle to be solved or a book to be read and put aside-but a mystery whose beauty and richness is to be constantly savored.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2001 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2001 The Great CoursesListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Dante's Divine Comedy
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Micky Mouse
- 07-11-24
Dantes Devine Comedy: A Fragment of Us All
A wonderful exposition of Dante's Devine comedy by Professors William R Cook and Ronald B Herzman State University of New York
Dantes praise is that he dared to write his autobiography in colossal cipher or into universality
Thank you for your analysis and guidance. An A-Z guide and guiding light into the complex layers and depth of Dante's soul .
Time and nature yeald us many gifts but not yet the timely man, the new religion the reconciler whom all things await.
Art is the path of the creator to his work, the paths or methods are ideal and eternal , though few men ever see them, not the artist himself for years or for a lifetime, unless he come into the conditions. The painter, the sculptor, the composer, the epic raposdist, the orator, all partake of one desire, namely to express themselves symmetrically and abundantly, not dwarfisly and fragmentarily
What little of all we know is said, what drops of all the sea of our science are baled up, and by what accident it is that theses are exposed, when so many secrets sleep in nature, hence the necessity of speech and song, hence theses throbs and heart-beatings in the orator. Dante, as with all great poets and artist, resemble a mirror carried through the street, ready to render an image of every created thing.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-05-19
Just Do This
Excellent, accessible, meaningful, often funny series on one of the world's greatest works of art.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Andrew Whittaker
- 30-11-21
Excellent course
A fascinating course created by very knowledgeable and enthusiastic professors. I really enjoyed it, glad I got it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 21-11-24
Now I’m ready to read the Comedia again!
Really engaging presenters providing a range of tools and information so I feel motivated to tackle the Comedia again and get even more from it on the next round!
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- markj
- 05-03-23
Excelllent
If you have read the Divine Comedy once or twice it’s wonderful to learn more about the text and reflect on it. This audio course is fantastic for that and extremely accessible.
It took me a little while to become accustomed to two presenters but, by the end, I was really enjoying their complementary contributions.
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- AVC
- 17-10-24
Informative
Listened to this in conjunction with the poems. It is really informative, through and I found it necessary to make sense of the themes and content of the poems.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Karen
- 31-03-15
A wonderful way to understand this masterpiece
Excellent teaching. Easy on the ear and a wonderful way in to this classic text. Full of interesting explanations and new thoughts for me on Dante
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8 people found this helpful
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- Anthony
- 21-02-19
Excellent teaching on a fantastic book
The professors are excellent and they make a difficult (but fascinating book) easy to understand and well worth spending the time and effort
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- Ian
- 18-02-16
Long Journey
This lecture series gives you exactly what it says. The tag-team lecturers take a few minutes to get used to, but its unnoticeable once you get going. It helps if you've read at least a synopsis of the poem and have a cursory understanding of Italian history, but they go pretty thoroughly into everything, so you could probably survive without any background read.
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6 people found this helpful
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- M. R. Albert
- 09-06-22
In other words... bravo!
Deep knowledge, impressive insights, some bad jokes (but I laughed)... good introduction to the Comedy. You end up wishing to read it. The bad reviews are preposterous.
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